In Teratology, the distant arching dome of an old train station looms over four stranded travelers, four strangers trapped together for a long night. Or are there three? Or two? Or.... ?
Teratology was written and originally performed
by Dave O'Meara, and is one of the plays for one actor included in
- Teratology Part 1 (PDF) MP3
That night,
In that train station— - Teratology Part 2 (PDF) MP3
Somewhere far above us, way up there
In the dark,
On the other side of a vast... - Teratology Part 3 (PDF) MP3
There on the floor, beneath
That thing,
We did what we could, the four of us, to occupy... - Teratology Part 4 (PDF) MP3
In that huge
Symmetrical place, our movements
Could not help... - Teratology Part 5 (PDF) MP3
But its only now, in memory, that I am able
To enjoy
That music, now that immobility... - Teratology Part 6 (PDF) MP3
There was a moment, not long
Before the moment of which I am thinking—
The moment... - Teratology Part 7 (PDF) MP3
As I sat there, listening
Silently to the silence, it occurred to me that this moment,
This unanticipated... - Teratology Part 8 (PDF) MP3
There was One!
In the row behind me, across the aisle
To my right, stretched out ... - Teratology Part 9 (PDF) MP3
But as I looked down bench
After bench, as I stared into the shadows
Of pillar after pillar... - Teratology Part 10 (PDF) MP3
An urge to hurry
Came over me, an urge
To finish.... - Teratology Part 11 (PDF) MP3
It was an odd, toylike
Place, this upper balcony, a curious
And whimsical... - Teratology Part 12 (PDF) MP3
All around me everything was quiet—
Save for the low
Meditative hum of the invisible... - Teratology Part 13 (PDF) MP3
Sometime later, as my thoughts returned,
Spent
If not chastened from their midnight... - Teratology Part 14 (PDF) MP3
But then, just before
The big moment, before the catharsis
Of auto-enumeration... - Teratology Part 15 (PDF) MP3
My own hand—I mean
My hand
When it was still a hand, a simple ordinary... - Teratology Part 16 (PDF) MP3
But I could not get away—there in my private
Darkness, branded
Onto the back of my eyelids, defying... - Teratology Part 17 (PDF) MP3
Wouldn't it be embarrassing
If it turned out all along to have been
Something I should... - Teratology Part 18 (PDF) MP3
Time passed, I'm sure, while I pondered
That image,
There with my eyes shut. Soon it lost... - Teratology Part 19 (PDF) MP3
"Oh yes, you may," I said, "Right here. Please do."
And there beside me on my
Solitary bench... - Teratology Part 20 (PDF) MP3
Right then, all I wanted—
Despite my eager, throbbing hand
Which still... - Teratology Part 21 (PDF) MP3
And so, for some time now,
I've been alone,
Undisturbed...
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